Festival Review

Liverpool Irish Festival bringing and Ireland closer together using arts and culture. Festival Review 2020 Produced Dec 2020 Contacts

John Chandler - Chair Emma Smith - Director Liverpool Irish Festival Liverpool Irish Festival +44(0) 151 722 2377 +44(0) 151 513 6640 +44(0) 776 294 3697 +44(0) 7804 286 145 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Company Limited No.4800736. Registered Charity No.1100126

Liverpool Irish Festival is a member of COoL; a diverse collective of key arts organisations in Liverpool, championing the arts; changing perceptions; creating possibilities.

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Contents

2020 headline achievements ...... 4 Points of Pride ...... 4 Notable activities ...... 4 Overview ...... 5

Cultivating and inspiring audiences ...... 7 Recommendation, re-attendance and quality ratings ...... 7 Recommendation rates ...... 7 Re-attendance ...... 8

Annual Engagement ...... 8 Out-of-festival events and annual growth ...... 8 Notes on audience values ...... 8 Event and audience growth/developments ...... 9 Live programme build ...... 10 Exhibition figures ...... 10 Intersectional programming ...... 10 Participants and audiences ...... 11 Ticket pricing and averages ...... 11 Average age ...... 12

Inclusion/The Creative Case ...... 13 Notes on data collection; entry and issues with identity data ...... 14 Place of birth vs resident now ...... 16 Ethnicity and nationality: audiences and artists ...... 16 Analysis – audience and artist ...... 16 Gender: audiences and artists ...... 18 Sexuality: audience and artists ...... 20

Payment of artists ...... 21

Audience postcode analysis ...... 22 Travel and out of town stays: indicators ...... 25 2020 indicators ...... 25

PR: Facts Figures and Trends ...... 25 Print ...... 25 Distribution ...... 26 Social media growth summary ...... 27 Facebook ...... 27 Twitter ...... 28 Instagram ...... 28 Website...... 29 Mailchimp ...... 29

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Press achieved ...... 30 Notes on press achieved ...... 33

Testimonials ...... 33 Descriptors ...... 33 Additional feedback ...... 34 Feedback ...... 34 Work suggestions ...... 35 Direct feedback ...... 36 Responding to feedback ...... 36

Focus for the future ...... 37 1. Grow core ...... 37 2. Develop public realm work ...... 37 3. Generate strong theme and programme ...... 37 4. Agree and pitch programme from summer ...... 37 5. Distribute programme early and get partner buy-in ...... 37

Thanks...... 38

Lorraine Maher led a Mixed Heritage Mixer as part of #LIF2020’s Black History Month activities.

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2020 Headline achievements Points of Pride • 101,132 visits in five years with 23,323 to 28 events and three exhibits in 2020 • We have showcased 705 artists, speakers and creatives in five years, 107 for #LIF2020 • A 5-year press reach/opportunity to see average of 15.36m • A five-year average quality rating and recommendation likelihood of over 95% • Between 2016-2020 we can evidence visits from all of Liverpool’s 40 residential postcodes • Our combined our social media event reach totalled 185,728, with engagements of 8734 across Facebook and Twitter. This does not include the Eventbrite/Facebook listings and is a new metric • Over five years we’ve worked with an average of 50 partners per year! • Jan-Dec 2020 we received £101,568 in public funding, up from £61,908 in 2019, largely due to receiving Cultural Recovery Funding from Arts Council (£45,450).

Notable activities In 2020 we • generated 31 commissions including significant films, articles and poems • challenged a national agency about Irish representation within arts and culture, which was upheld • researched a paper on Irish artist representation in England • created a Cultural Connectedness Network • contributed to national #GlobalGreening and St Brigid’s Day programmes, as well as Black History Month • delivered active work and support to the following networks and consultations: Creative Organisations of Liverpool, Festival Forum, Liverpool City Region’s consultations on Internationalism, Cultural Strategy, Theatre tickets and Music tickets • attended 257 meetings/calls and sent 4,788 emails (18.4 per day), • launched our new Business Plan and Black Lives Matter solidarity statement • received mentor/business support via European funded Run Growth Platform and joined the Peer Network • made over 21 funding applications and supplied five letters of support, a testimonial and a review • delivered a 35,000-word 32-page newspaper and exchange themed Festival during a pandemic • survived Covid-19.

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Overview

Liverpool Irish Festival’s 2020 theme “exchange” In future, we will need to generate a blended moved on from “unique stories, creatively told”, programme of online and ‘real world’ events, with “migration”, “what does it mean to be Irish?” and venue selection guided by event needs, institutional “conviviality”. It developed a strong cohort of events, connections and accessibility (physical and discussions and written commissions in a year intersectional). Ticketing shares and ease of fraught with difficulty, including social distancing, purchasing will be considerations. isolation, technological advances and change. In 2018 we stated a desire to improve public realm, To simplify the programme, during complex times, we high-profile work, which improved in 2019 with dropped the public use of our three programme trails In:Visible Women at Tate Exchange and our Palm –In:Visible Women, Nook and Cranny spaces and House artistic residency with Art Arcadia. Social Family Days- though they are retained for a time distancing suspended work on this in 2020, though when we can work in the physical world once more our continued partnership with Bluecoat Display and In:Visible Women, particularly, remains a Centre and Design and Craft Council of Ireland, programme focus. always provides one physical month-long exhibit.

We generated 122 (72 survey and 50 poll) Our public realm plan for 2020 was to begin work on responses, compared to 359, 490 and 342 in 2019, the Liverpool Irish Famine Trail, opening a five 2018 and 2017 respectively. This lower return project/five-year programme, growing Festival profile, reflects fewer events, no volunteer interaction and a developing city influence and inter/national links, difficulty in creating reflection time and prompts in reputation and events and providing a year ‘round the online space. offer. The plan has gained support from potential international partners, such as the Strokestown #LIF2020 audiences used “interesting”, “informative” National Famine Museum and Trail, but Coronavirus and “joy” as their top three descriptors compared to caused the National Lottery Heritage Fund to close “fun”, “entertaining” and “joy” in 2019. “Fun” and just as we intended to submit our application. It has “friendly” are next in the list, which we are proud of just reopened. Involvement in the given the digital nature of our work in 2020. Voices Roadshow proved tremendously successful, Of 28 Festival events, 25 were online. The remaining with over 4k watching the collected entries. three walks are postponed as Government policy, Like most things in 2020, #GlobalGreening was lockdown tiering and public safety changed. We will C-19 affected, coming shortly after Matt Hancock’s run these when it is safe to do so. An additional three 16 March warning that all social activity must cease, out-of-Festival events add venues, audiences and though ahead of the official announcement on 23 reach to our annual figures. March, causing confusion for some of our venues. The reduction in total events to 31 from 50+ reflects Calculating conservatively, based on the buildings Covid-19 funding, but also what can be expected of that participated and lower street audiences, we digital audiences during a 10-day period. We were believe 14,229 visits would have been achieved, mindful of ‘festival fatigue’ being different to usual down from 21,728 in 2019. years, but also what control we would need over Liverpool City Council were forced to cancel the River events. Everything for#LIF2020 was theme-linked, Festival, where we usually obtain a further 5-6k with us leading programming, quality and delivery. visitors and Liverpool Pride was also cancelled.

Paying audiences continue to present concerns. 2020’s difficulties brought some advances in Consultations begun in 2019 are still to deliver community cohesion. CARA -a network of Irish evidence as Covid-19 changed the landscape service providers for the North West- formed early entirely. The majority of #LIF2020 was free to enter, after lockdown to create an activated network, that though donations -available on every event- raised signposts to member services and links communities. £528 (after Eventbrite fees). We received additional The Festival is a founding member. donations totalling £135 (£713 donation total). 5

We’ve never attempted more fundraising than in The Board formed the volunteer team in 2020, which 2020, producing 22 applications totalling £393.7k in required tech access and sign-ins. Consequently, we requests, up from £143k in 2019. Of those, we didn’t have an additional volunteer cohort in 2020. achieved total grants of £101k, including regular City Online spaces require as much, if not more, Festival Council funds (£20.4k) and Irish Government funding ‘front-of-house’ management and -being self-owned- (£11.5k). We also received the UK Government’s does not benefit from venue support. Building safe small business relief support (£10k) and HM online spaces requires proactive and alert Government/Arts Council England’s Cultural management and must be scoped in future digital Recovery Funding (£50.5k) and four funds from the plans. Irish Government’s emergency, reconciliation, We worked with 107 artists, creatives and Christmas and creative community fund programmes contributors; showing work from many more (e.g., (£9.6k). £5,907 was donated to the Festival by its guests involved in Varo’s film, all of the filmmakers Director using the HMRC SEISS drawdown. and animators). We developed 45 exhibition days or Despite the difficulties, events were on-sale by mid- 87 if we include #GlobalGreening. This compares late September, with 20k newspapers at the with 68 in 2020; 88 in 2018; 93 in 2017 and 81 in distributors by 28 Sept. 2019’s pilot of selling space 2016. These do not include #GlobalGreening. in the newspaper, was repeated, but with less take-up Exhibition production, commissioning and delivery as organisations struggled for funds. We believe the was heavily affected by venue closures. However, we newspaper to be a significant success because it developed 31 commissions (21 in 2019); on a • created non-digital reach turnover of £104,184 (£78,228, 1 Jan-26 Nov • served as a gift to people in lockdown 2019). It is important to recognise that £45,450 is of • extended storytelling via 15+ commissions, this is cultural recovery funding (delivered in Oct). in-depth articles and event cross-sells Without this turnover would have been just £58.7k. • provides a Festival legacy Peer feedback shows our reputation continues to rise • spoke to local and international audiences. for our curated programme, community group work, Liverpool’s October calendar is becoming output quality, partnership and contribution to cultural increasingly competitive. Though we collaborate excellence (see Testimonials). where possible, it is worth noting We continue to believe we are unique in our field, • LEAP takes place just before us; Black History remaining the only arts and culture *led* Irish festival Month takes place throughout October and in in the world. Our specificity is our USP. Liverpool’s standard years we compete unique connection to Irish communities, its with their closing month(s) international standing and our determination to • Homotopia and DaDaFest follow us address Irishness, diasporic peoples and Irish culture • Hallowe’en events are increasing -as a spectrum of ideas and abilities- engages • many commercial venues run Hallowe’en people. The location harnesses the stories, but the activities, diluting city event messages generosity of sharing it takes it beyond city • football schedules have an effect perimeters. We have something exportable and • we don’t understand the implication of meaningful that develops exchanges that ‘brings presenting in or out of half-term Liverpool and Ireland closer together using arts and • in 2020 Coronavirus, Brexit and US presidential culture’. elections swamped the press space and without We thank our artists, partners and sponsors; the support of venue publications or venue print collaborators and networks; venues, friends and every pick-ups, all reach figures are affected. visitor and audience member for joining us for #LIF2020 saw us generate more digital and social #LIF2020. We hope you will and join us next year - media content than ever. This worked best when the 21-31 Oct 2021. we fully understood the technology and the Festival Emma Smith – Director and artists aligned their promotion, with each Liverpool Irish Festival benefitting from the other’s audiences, such as with the Trad Disco.

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Cultivating and inspiring audiences Recommendation, re-attendance and quality ratings Liverpool Irish Festival scores incredibly positively with audiences. We use a basic 1=poor and 5=excellent system to understand people’s festival experience and chances they would recommend us.

Experience Poor > > > Excellent Star count 1 2 3 4 5 Very unlikely/ Quite Might/ Recommendation likelihood wouldn't unlikely might not Quite likely Very likely/will We believe that “4” and “5” mean “good” and “excellent” respectively. Analysis reveals the following:

Attendance/recommendation 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 % % % % % Attended before? 49.67 56.35 49 42.77 68.66 Will attend again? 93.56 95.3 98.9 97.55 96.52 Recommend the festival? 4*+ 96.29 96.6 96.2 95.11 92.65 Quality? 4*+ 94 96.6 95.13 93.96 96.46

Recommendation rates Our recommendation rates and rate for quality are staggeringly high, reaching over 90% annually (sustained in 2020). Variations occur from the mix in venues, weather and external influences, but -even with the move to online- with just 2.46% variation we are confident that audiences attending #LIF2020 • experienced welcoming, high quality events • worked in line with or above expectations • want to return • will make and hear positive word-of-mouth recommendations.

Even based on feedback biases* (e.g., only people who have extremes of experience or are well-engaged are likely to complete a form) this is a significant achievement and positive indicator. We stated in 2019 we may never exceed those figures so to remain with a couple of % is sensational!

* User error can contribute to figures. Infrequently, people who had a brilliant time (recognisable in comments) misunderstand the scoring and indicate “1/poor”. Whilst possible this happens at the opposing scale end (people indicating “5” for ‘terrible’), it is less likely someone who in mid-to-low satisfaction will complete feedback. Thus, we *may* benefit from survey bias, but it’s difficult to control/account for, especially at low numbers. We input as surveys present, processing only what is submitted. Percentages do the rest.

My Aunt and I image, © Carmen Cullen, #LIF2020 In 2020 72.57% gave the Festival a “5” for quality, up on 2019’s 71%! This is encouraging news for us, given the technological learning curve we faced and the user error we know was encountered. This said, perhaps user error and lack of access to the online survey contributes to this and we shall have to endeavour in future to ensure this can be balanced. Re-attendance Each year we see 40%+ of people saying they have attended a Festival, with 93%+ stating they would attend again. We hit a high of 98.9% in 2018, decreasing marginally year-on-year to 96.5% today. Most commonly, “no” is stated by overseas visitors who clearly see their opportunity to reattend as limited.

To retain such positivity under Covid-19 is laudable, given the opportunity for ‘keyboard warrior-ing’ and the distance from perceived repercussion. However, we must recognise the smaller sample than usual; just 72- 124 surveys, compared to over 300 usually. However, that they track with previous years is heartening.

What the figures bear-witness to is returning crowds are higher in 2020. This tracks with our online broadcasting and inability to collect new audiences via print pick-ups and poster sightings. However, that over 30% were new audiences confirms that efforts made in online advertising, radio interviews and mail drops were important in driving new audiences. Annual Engagement

Out-of-festival events and annual growth Notes on audience values We are still coming to terms with what these online audiences mean in terms of value against ‘live’ audiences. Having asked our sponsors and peers for how they are calculating equivalencies it is clear the sector still does not fully understand how it will calculate these. For consistency of monitoring we have adopted the following stances using “analyst’s prerogative”: • 1 virtual ticket = 1.25 real world attendances to help account for the household watching one screen • When calculating total visits, we have used actual ticketed attendances, including the 1.25 metric for virtual attendances and we have tallied the 1-month views as visits, in line with our peers, Writing on the Wall. Breakdowns of these are recorded and can be re-accessed/appraised if needed. • the 1-month view numbers are a tally of the ‘1 min views’ on Facebook and ‘3 min views’ on YouTube; the metrics they use to calculate ‘views/visits’.

When looking at the ‘Participants and Audiences’ section, it is worth noting that Arts Council England defines audience engagement across a set of ‘event’ categories, which include ‘Workshops’, ‘Performances’, ‘Events’, etc. These categories to help determine depth of engagement versus passive exposure. LIF’s workshops and

Mr and Mrs Kwok Fong (nee Gannon) 8 with their first-born grandchild, Roma, courtesy of the Fong Family via The Sound Agents, procured during the making of Liverpool Family Ties: The Irish Connection (2020). ‘other’ (including walking tours, etc) demonstrate a high rate of committed engagement as opposed to passive engagement, such gallery counts where it is difficult to understand someone’s understanding/engagement from their presence. The 2018 spike is worth noting, which includes ‘active’ audiences for the Three Festival Tall Ships Regatta/River Festival and ‘passive’ audiences for #GreeningTheCity/#GlobalGreening. Event and audience growth/developments Atop the festival, Liverpool Irish Festival makes contributions to wider cultural calendars, including #GlobalGreening (formerly #GreeningTheCity) for St Patrick’s Day, Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Young People’s Festival: Rewire Liverpool’s River Festival, Liverpool Pride march and/or Quirky Cabaret: Celtic Crossings festival fundraiser. In 2019 such events added 27,299 participations to our annual total. In 2019 we ran c.50 events and hoped to do similar in 2020. However, C-19 impacts and audience ‘bandwidth’ for 2D space engagement (over 10 days) permitted 25 online events (11 live) with three live tours still to run when safety guidance allows.

In 2020 the majority of these were cancelled. Ahead of national lockdown #1 we were commissioned by the Irish Embassy to create a film for their national St Brigid’s day programme (premiered at Bluecoat) and we produced a reduced #GlobalGreening offering. In response to lockdown, we ran our first online offering -in partnership with the Great Famine Voices Roadshow and Institute of Irish Studies (Liverpool)- developing a series of online presentations, which garnered 2418 on the day, growing to over 4k by Review time.

Important in reaching/developing new audiences; building reputation and partnerships in communities/knowledge sectors, such events demonstrate our multi-disciplinarity, committed collaborator status and dedication to creative opportunities and artist engagement. This year-round representation -rather than ‘pop-up’ function- demonstrates our day-to-day resonance with groups, organisations and missions.

These events split and mitigate risk. Bad weather, transport strikes, significant city or sporting events can significantly affect audience behaviours and tickets. Relying on one opportunity in any calendar year leaves us vulnerable to such issues. Spreading activity –atop Festival delivery- locates new audiences, provides opportunities and builds engagement, proven across the past five years.

Total audiences for 2020 were 23,323, 12% up on planned activities and proposed numbers, though 35.7% down on 2019 figures, understandable given the reduced programme size (c.60%), digital shift, promotional opportunities and funding cuts. High yielding events are ordinarily things such as the Family Day, #GlobalGreening, River Festival and street work. This year, Trad Disco, Great Famine Voices Roadshow work and Varo have added significantly to figures. Under the circumstances of 2020, we are pleased with the audiences and have greater understanding of the power of digital, interest areas and technological implications of recording sessions, broadcasts and social media power. See star below for linked info.

#GlobalGreening is the most significant ‘visitor’ addition to the programme, yielding 14,229 visits (21,728 in 2019). In non- lockdown years the figure will grow, but in 2020 building closures, home-working and public uncertainty meant not all buildings turned green as planned and fewer people were out, accounted for here.

We had one sell out event, which was our one live event in 2020: Liverpool Family Ties: The Irish Connection -a film made for and screened on St Brigid’s Day- had a (free) full-house. Online events can reach a max if a target is set and attained. However, it is important to understand your baseline and we did not in 2020.

In ‘real’ terms we were able to draw 1,794 live attendances across ‘live’ and ‘live virtual‘ events for #LIF2020. This is 19.6% of the 9,158 people we drew in Oct 2019 (8,289/5,356 in 2018/2017, respectively). However, we only had 60% of the programme and because people already understood they could (often) view events later (as over 7k have), we think of this as an achievement of which we can be proud given our much-reduced programme, budget and capacity.

That we underpin the success of the festival with activities across the year builds on previous learning and crystallises the importance of partnership work and collaboration.

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Live programme build Exhibition figures During #LIF2020 we held one independent exhibition with Bluecoat Display Centre; #GlobalGreening and an Instagram takeover by Edy Fung. This year we have classified these as ‘exhibits’, feeling the numbers involved are better represented in these categories, than in ‘live programme’ figures. Because we have assigned #GlobalGreening to ‘exhibition’ rather than ‘event’ measurements, the year-on-year measurements don’t really stack up, moving to 14,229 from 3,419 (2019), 923 in 2018 and 1200 in 2017.

We learned in 2019 that exhibitions in popular venues add large audience values t or figures, e.g., Casey Orr’s Saturday Girl at which had 13,283 people through the doors (though we estimated just a 15% engagement with the work, totalling 1,992). We could not deliver these kinds of works in 2020, but must consider them again when the public is permitted to return to cultural venues.

Exhibition figures are an extrapolation of building figures and/or official counts.

For #GlobalGreening we use a population % rate, multiplied by 2% of the population being out and the number of buildings we light. We use 15% of visitor rates for Bluecoat Display Centre, based on the necessity to pass the window display to access the till. This does not account for the street rate and those who look in to the display from outside, which is a feature of this form of display, hence the title ‘In the Window’. Generally, we err on the side of caution using conservative estimates across our figures.

Intersectional programming

As part of our commitment to Black Lives Matter, we stated we would ensure 25% of our programme would be driven by intersectional matters, including ethnicity, non-binary gender and sexuality and neurodiverse (in time) work.

8:31 (25.8%) of our events and exhibits were ethnicity driven or contained work specifically about ethnicity and identity and 9:31 (29%) were female-led/centred. Overall, this suggests that our programme build has a 27.4% focus on intersectional issues.

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Participants and audiences

Participants and 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 visitors* Events Exhibits Events Exhibits Events Exhibits Events Exhibits Events Exhibits

Expected 3608 975 6495 1030 19625 760 28790 2180 1019 19670 Achieved 5569 3243 7252 1253 23309 923 32841 3419 9094 14229 Visitor total 8812 8505 24232 36260 23323 % (actual vs expected) 192.28 113.02 118.87 117.08 112.73 * All figures (2016-19) are derived from audience counters; ticket counts or extrapolations from automated door counts. 2020’s counts are described below

Audience attendances 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 W, P, E, O or X? No. Aud. No. Aud. No. Aud. No. Aud. No. Aud. Workshops (W) 5 1046 17 436 13 566 17 301 8 803 Performance (P) 14 2124 31 5088 34 2829 12 863 14 3641 Event (E ) 27 2052 16 2459 18 1675 12 4523 4 375 Other (O) 7 347 1 100 10 18239 7 27154 2 4275 Exhibitions (X) 4 3243 3 1253 4 923 4 3419 3 14229 Total 57 8812 68 9336 79 24232 52 36260 31 23323

These tables (two above and Live Programme build below) await audience values from IndieCork, Ireland XO, Colm and Laura Keegan, Liverpool Lambs and the Bluecoat Display Centre. Based on lived experience of previous events, the calculations we have already used for follow up audiences and the nature of these events, we believe these may bring an additional 305 visitors to the figures.

Ticket pricing and averages

Average ticket price* 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Total number of events 53 69 75 48 31 Number of paid events 27 34 43 19 2 % of events programme 50.9 49.3 57.3 39.6 6.5 Number of free events 26 35 32 29 29 % of events programme 49.1 50.7 42.7 60.4 93.5 Average ticket price (F/C median totals, divided by number paid events) £ 16.72 £ 7.35 £ 8.30 £ 9.96 £ 6.75 No. of tickets issued at paid events (including comps) 2714 1550 3784 1158 170 Income if average ticket price was redeemed (gross income indicator, not accounting figure) £45,378.08 £11,392.50 £31,407.20 £14,207.90 £ 1,147.50 Average across all events (including free events) £ 3.17 £ 9.39 £ 9.04 £ 4.82 £ 4.59 * Based on the average ticket price, this being the median value between full and concession price, multiplied by the number of purchases made. Does not account for complimentary tickets or free events. Of #LIF2020’s 28 sessions/26 events, just two were for paid tickets – Mrs Shaw Herself and Colm and Laura Keegan (which they managed). In #LIF2019 ’s we had 48 events (52 sessions; not including exhibits) and 19 were paid events, with 29 free. The estimated potential income for every ticket assigned to an actual audience member, based on average prices, amounts to just £1,147.5 in 2020 compared to £14,207.90 in 2019, across the portfolio. This is a gross income indicator, not an accounting figure.

Donations were an option for all events. The biggest collective donation amount was gained by Matt McGinn at almost £200, paid to him in lieu of a performance fee. Box office splits were not a feature this year as we did not operate with any venues where paid tickets featured. The last event we ran that brought a good profit was TG4 Gradam Ceoil nights in 2019, but this was tempered by ticket sales for Rebels and Friends.

We handled the vast majority of our sales using Eventbrite, moving away from Ticket Quarter as planned.

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In an ideal world, we would always be ready to sell our portfolio of events from early Sept, using as many promotional channels as possible. The earlier we can be up and running, allows for better promotion, repositioning and approaching new/alternate markets, where appropriate.

If we use Eventbrite allocations in future, need to do more work on the Facebook integrations and publicising the events via Eventbrite, too.

We await the evidence of both the City’s music and theatre consultations, which hoped to better understand Liverpool’s ‘guest list’ economy and difficulty in raising ticket income. Looking at the year-on-year figures, we can evidence that ticket buying is dropping; a note consistent with peer feedback. With so much free content available, many people occupy their time and energy here rather than in paid events. We must get activities such as these listed with a couple of paydays ahead to help people spread the cost. It is important to remember that our free events are an important part of our public function and do much to help us engage deeply with communities and audiences, fulfilling stakeholder/funder missions and maintaining our egalitarianism, charity status and barrierless access.

Average age

Age - audience 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Facebook + survey Category Av No % No % No % No % No % %s Under 16 8 7 1.20 11 3.05 5 1.57 0 0.00 16-19 17.5 10 1.72 25 6.93 20 6.29 0 0.00 20-24 22 46 7.92 95 26.32 30 9.43 0 0.00 2.9 25-44 34.5 119 20.48 52 14.40 70 22.01 2 2.78 14 45-54 49.5 86 14.80 75 20.78 51 16.04 16 22.22 34.3 55-64 59.5 172 29.60 90 24.93 Did not 44 13.84 27 37.50 26.9 65+ (Life expectancy 81*) 73 139 23.92 5 1.39 collect 54 16.98 23 31.94 21.9 Prefer not to say/PNTS/Left blank 36.5 2 0.34 8 2.22 data 44 13.84 4 5.56 0 Completions 581 100 361 100 0 0 318 100 72 100 100 % answering question 95.87 100.00 - 88.58 100.00 Total form fillers 606 361 359 72 Average age of visitor 51.7 39.2 - 44.5 59.6 * The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors Study, 2013 (GBD 2013)

Lack of survey returns in 2020 may skew the facts around this topic and consequently we have also looked at our Facebook audiences to give a secondary checker against our known audience, which can be seen in the table above.

What the average shows us is that we have moved the average visitor age, reflecting attempts to attract younger people to our work, but we are beginning to appreciate how difficult it is to collect data from this group. In 2020, particularly, our average audience age was predetermined to increase due to the lack of the Family Day and ability to create children centred online programmes, which do not reflect the activities we generated in the newspaper, for instance. Having measured the average age tallied from the specific ages provided, rather than the average representation in the categories (as above) our average age rises just slightly to 45. Anecdotally, we have realised this year that if we measured equal representation from across the age categories presented here (i.e., 14.29% in each category), the average age of a visitor would be 37.7. This means we fall on the older, rather than younger, side of an ‘average’ audience.

Still from The Invisible Boy, screened by IndieCork for #LIF2020

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Inclusion/The Creative Case

Inclusion or “The Creative C ase” is an important initiative driven by Arts Council England to redress diversity by creating deeper inclusion and fewer barriers in ACE funded work. ACE state The Creative Case is not ‘equal opportunities repackaged’, but a fundamental change to diversity consideration, embedding diversity in organisational philosophy, conduct and content.

With a responsibility to alter monitoring to comply with GDPR and funder needs to account for disability and diversity, there is much to do for a small organisation. It is not always possible to get artists, audiences and performers to complete such rigorous checks and they have been much politicised in recent times. We must work still harder to build this in to future contracts and service level agreements, in spite of limited capacity and resources. Critically, if awarded National Portfolio Organisation status, we must demonstrate models that advance this target.

Inclusion goes beyond physical access. It begins with the belief audiences are safe from oppression and supported to engage in activities. Our 2019 inclusion statement and 2020 Black Lives Matter statement, underpin our partner expectations, so that if anything falls short, we have leverage to demand change or evidence reasons not to return.

The Creative Case is not solely about audiences, but performers, artists, Boards and staff/contractors. Access to aspiration, working in areas of deprivation (and wealth) and class considerations are important to build into our work. Ideally, they dovetail with existing strategies, because –as an organisation- we aim to be at the forefront of addressing intersectionality and all that this includes. That said, to keep this updated is important. LIF’s work with single and dual-heritage groups as well as specific audiences and key city partners, such as Writing on the Wall, Pagoda Arts and Liverpool Pride are instrumental to this.

The Festival must and does employ The Creative Case to fairly represent its needs and specificity, though it has had to take Arts Council England to task on the matter to handle ‘White British’ and ‘White Irish’ conflation. 2019 proved we must ensure that when we say ‘Irish’, it is not solely interpreted as ‘white’. We continue to stress that ‘Irish’ is a protected characteristic within inclusion frameworks and continue to call- out blindness towards these conflations as ‘othering’ (more here: http://www.otheringandbelonging.org/the-problem-of-othering/).

Why is Irishness othering? Let’s be clear – it shouldn’t be. Violence towards, isolation of and bullying happens against , to subjugate and make them ‘other’. We will not tolerate this.

For the Irish in Britain, specifically England, people may be isolated for many reasons. Over centuries, individuals and groups have left the island of Ireland with motives ranging from safety to free economics. Famine, political hardship, lack of acceptance for faith, sexuality, actions against God/society, abuse and combinations of the above mean it is often vulnerable people who travel. Host cities and those therein can view economic migrancy as threatening, leading to insolation and difficulty. Arriving in large groups has meant Irish migrants have become the ‘whipping population’ for other (previously) vulnerable groups who pass on the position of the bullied to the bullies as a way of ending their own isolation (‘No blacks, no dogs, no Irish’). Common issues Irish people can -and do- face, include common tropes/assumptions that they are • poor and hungry (famine; unable to earn at • white home; determined to have a working class/rural • Catholic/Protestant/Christian accent by those who know no better) • terrorists (IRA or other) • uneducated, illiterate and slow minded and/or • criminals (transportation) ‘great craic’; alcoholics and drug users (‘Paddy • violent and Mick go into a bar…’) • abusers or abused. White-on-white racism (not that all Irish people are white) often goes unchecked and so English-on-Irish (or Irish-on-English though rarely ‘British-on-Irish’) has continued hiding in plain sight. This kind of nationalism has not received the rejection and review that other ‘white racism’ has rightly received, such as that of white- on-Black or white-on-Asian racism, returning us the to ‘No blacks, no dogs, no Irish’ example.

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Why do these things matter? Because prejudgement is not self-determined. It limits everyone’s choices and long-term access, predetermining success or ability despite best efforts, being neither merit nor potential based. It considers nothing of a person’s lived-experience, skills, tolerances or attributes.

Where must we consider The Creative Case? The Creative Case factors in all we do; contracting, Board member make-up, artists and audiences. As a minimum, it must track national averages and reflect our links with Ireland and Britain.

It would be peculiar for our Festival to attract 50% Black audiences, when Liverpool’s Black population is 2.8 % (2011 census) and Ireland’s is 1.4%, but by the very nature of our work, we should attract individuals from across the diversity spectrum. To have a high white-Irish count reflects LIF’s representation of -and mission to celebrate- Irish arts and culture; if we miss groups most closely aligned with this we must consider why.

Monitoring The Creative Case in our artists, performers and creatives is notoriously difficult. Despite surveying our 2020 contributors less than 10% responded. Guessing someone’s sexuality, ethnicity or gender would be appropriate and with such little data generated in 2020 we have used what we did gain and averaged it with 2019’s to give us an estimated figure. Notes on data collection; entry and issues with identity data In 2020 all data mining had to be digital. However, Paper surveys are brilliant when used by volunteers, mindfulness around the politicisation of data though they must be short to sustain interest and following Black Lives Matter and LGBTQI+ activism clarity. They can be difficult to interpret and are time -alongside the resulting rigour in intersectionality consuming, but they have taught us much and are handling- plus working in new contexts, meant it especially useful in venues where we have no was rarely appropriate, to ask someone to complete ticketing control. Ensuring these match such data during or directly after an event, out of intersectional needs will be paramount. context and without any reflection or ‘grace’ period. Year-on-year (YOY) figures for ethnicity and In future, it would be prudent to use the technology nationality raise issues. From previous years we to follow up with all event attendees once a little know that forms asking people to specify ‘Ethnicity time has passed, with information on why it is and nationality’ in freeform results in wide variations important. Future (tech) considerations must think and incompletions, such as “white”, ”black”, “Scouse”, about the context in which they are being deployed “UK” – all part answers. and how we can re-ignite someone to discuss their experience when a little time has passed. Any format In 2018 we asked for ‘Ethnicity’ and ‘City and must aid not alienate completers. Zoom polling and country of birth’ (in a bid to determine nationality Google Forms work, technically, but with fewer live ourselves), coding replies to fit data models, but it events and no volunteer interaction, the ability to use lacked some nuances. In 2019, we tweaked the them in the context of the event and collect data questions to: ‘Your city and country of birth meant usage and take up was very low. (nationality)’ and ‘Your ethnicity/ethnicities’, all of which were presented, but we managed to miss A way to improve data is to attach monitoring to ‘Post code’ from the form, an error to be corrected in ticket purchasing, which Eventbrite has (since all future surveys. #LIF2020) announced as a service. In 2021, if we use this technical platform, we will use this functionality.

Helen Tierney performing in Mrs Shaw Herself, delivered as an online performance during #LIF2020.

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Asked about ‘ethnicity’, many write “British” rather of ‘white other’. We have attributed these as fairly as than “White British” or “Asian British”, along with we can, but within the realm of GDPR this is difficult. other freeform answers such as “Scouse”, “European” and “why does it matter?”; this will only ‘Anglo-Irish’ is a heavily politicised term and can infer have become more politicised following Black Lives class system issues. Whilst mindful of this, we can Matter, but also as ‘descriptors; for sexuality and do little about entries while providing freeform gender progress. questions. To incorporate a full selection structure would overcomplicate the survey and alienate Where hyphens are entered, we attribute them as people not wholly reflected by one category. As ‘Prefer not to say’. Where an aspect of ethnicity has identity politics rise and generations merge, a been offered, we try to fairly attribute it, e.g., flexibility around terms will need consideration (think “Scouse” may not mean ‘white’, but should mean “black Irish”/”Irish Black”/”Black and Irish”, which are they were born or primarily raised in Britain and not the same). therefore their entry is attributed as ‘Unknown ethnicity – British’. We understand from 2019 funder feedback that our high-percentage Irish ‘white artist and audience’ is An interesting point to note is that between not instantly understood within the inclusion/BAME #LIF2017 and #LIF2018 British and Irish ethnicity framework. Although we have addressed this as decreased by 11% showing we have broadened our flawed, given our understanding of white-on-white audience, though much of this may be made up with racism and Irishness as othering, it has been a ‘White – any other backgrounds’. sobering, hard-fought and ugly piece of learning. It has also reaffirmed our position as a ‘White British’, ‘White Irish’, ‘Anglo-Irish’, ‘British’, representational voice and has recharged our work ‘Irish’ and ‘white other’ audiences generate just over on overturning assumptions, increasing inclusion 66% of our audience, compared with 71% (2018) and working on our intersectionality. and 83% in 2016. We have seen fluctuations in our international audience and with freedom of choice, In part, this has instructed our work on dual/mixed more people identifying as ‘Anglo-Irish’ rather than heritage lives, cultural connectedness and Global one or the other, suggesting that 2016’s figures only Famine Voices, along with articles in the #LIF2020 helped to tell part of the story by defining ‘British’ newspaper and work around reconciliation. We are and ‘Irish’. Increased numbers ignore the question placing the Festival at the centre of cultural dialogue entirely (22%) and others do not fully appreciate the with city networks, City Council, Irish in Britain and question, leaving answers such as ‘white’, which the Embassy to present supportive and positive makes it difficult to ascribe ethnicity, hence the use dialogue related to gender, sexuality and intersectionalism.

Matt McGinn’s album and documentary Lessons of War featured as part of #LIF2020 as an online event, #LIF2020LongRead and in our newspaper. The album cover (detailed here) was designed by celebrated Irish illustrator, Oliver Jeffers.

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Place of birth vs resident now What this shows us, is that even though we are dealing with fewer feedback forms, the percentages for where people came from (left) and where they live now (below) are tracking relatively evenly, except for gains made in 2020, with more people attending from (probably tracking with the Patrick Kielty/Commission for Victims and Survivors event, plus Gael Linn).

What we see in the table left, is that within ‘local’ our Liverpool and LCR gains have borrowed from attendances in Manchester and our attendances from Ireland are down.

Ethnicity and nationality: audiences and artists Analysis – audience and artist Collecting intersectional data in 2020 has proved to be harder this year than any other. The politicisation of data -of which we are a part- has meant that people are increasingly aware of good and bad practices, but also fatigued by the process. Black Lives Matter has been an important part of this, but it follows on from the GDPR practices on 2018-19 and a great deal of dialogue around gender and sexuality. This means that asking for identity linked data is now loaded and for many this is off-putting. It also means that context is everything; having fewer live events in which to set the context and tone means we have struggled to gain new data. We have presented the findings of our 72 audience surveys and 10 artist returns.

Though returns are low, they bear some resemblance to previous years, showing high Irish participation and an audience awareness of their ability to identify within various British, Irish and ethnic categories. In the paragraphs below, we track 2020/2019/average between to help account for low feedback rate in 2020. We will use the average figure in our wider reporting.

In both tables, it is clear we work with majority white peoples: 90/89/89.5% of artists and 83/66/74.5% of audiences being white. It is important to note that within this “white” category 90/57/73.5% of artists and 45/17/31% of audiences are Irish.

When looking at the makeup of diversity on the island of Ireland and in Liverpool, this is not wholly surprising, but we would like to work on ensuring we are accessible to ethnic minority audiences, too, especially when considering our work on dual heritage lives and the importance we place on inclusion. Work with Irish Black communities did happen, but -due to the difficulties with data collection- are not seen in the statistics.

It is important to draw attention to this under The Creative Case as we have found some can overlook Irish nationality/Irishness as a protected characteristic within ethnicity and identity frameworks, which we are doing all we can to address. These groups are different to ‘white British artists and audiences’ in Liverpool, showing we are talking to and working with people in marginalised groups.

This year we were unable to work with our newly established Chinese Irish community members, who - having faced terrific racism following the outbreak of Covid-19- were very reluctant to engage in anything outside of well-known networks. We must work to correct this in future.

Working with or attracting white people is not done at the isolation and rejection of other marginalised groups, but references Ireland’s and its diaspora’s cultural cohesion. Over 7/4.9/5.95% of our artists and 9.72/10/9.86% of our audiences come from mixed ethnicity backgrounds and our dual-heritage work demonstrates a dedication to work with more and other ethnicities and groups. Commencing work on the Liverpool Irish Famine will open up discussion with a number of groups, internationally, and will drive access to diaspora audiences.

Still from Sea screened by IndieCork for #LIF2020

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Gender: audiences and artists All the data issues concerning ethnicity are valid here, too. In an increasingly intersectional world- to understand the differences and diversity within gender and sexuality groups- is becoming more complex. ‘Prefer not to says’ feature, but it is clear using freeform answers lets us learn about our audience. Despite the ongoing development of the gender and sexuality language, many confuse gender and sexuality and for some, neither is a not a topic for discussion or open reference. The politicisation of these terms has made analysis more difficult, but there is much to learn.

Our audience figures suggest we continue to increase female engagement, which could be accounted for by our In:Visible Women programme, but may equally indicate a feedback bias. Alternatively, it may mean that as intersectionality increases more men are choosing to reconsider their gender stance. The tables below show our findings for audiences and artists.

Slight increases in non-cisgendered/non-binary audiences are minimal and therefore difficult to learn from. It is also difficult to track against national statistics as nothing has come through in census about this, yet. The 2021 census will help to address this.

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We worked with 107 artists, creatives and contributors in 2020. Anecdotally, our 10 artist returns suggest a higher number of male artists, but in practice we believe this balance favours female practitioners. However, without the hard evidence, this can only be presented anecdotally.

Lead image for Zoom presented, scratch reading of Stowaway, written by Barbara Marsh and premiered by Liverpool Irish Festival (2020).

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In 2018 and 2019, an individual raised their concern about the survey question titled ‘Gender’, disputing that what we meant was ‘biological’ and therefore should actually be ‘Sex’. The Festival rejects this, based on a desire to understand what people are self-identifying as at the point of their visit (primarily for funder benefaction, not Festival business), not the start-point of their lives. We will continue to use the term ‘Gender’ as a positive reinforcement of our inclusion, as opposed to a narrow political view of the gender spectrum.

Linked with concerns about Irish recognition within protected characteristic frameworks, we are mindful that co-working with partners will likely develop intersectional diversity in audiences, including events such as Black History Month, River Festival and, we hope, Liverpool Pride. This was affected deeply in 2020 by Covid- 19, cancelling many events and opportunities. Guided by an appropriateness within our mission -to create greater inclusion and links between Liverpool and Ireland using arts and culture- we will pursue work that builds on this, not generate tokenistic links to improve statistics. Reaching non-cisgendered communities, for example -in line with a mission to include diaspora audiences and those who are sometimes isolated from their Irish or Britishness by their difference- has long been a preserve of the Festival. Reflecting on our white paper work with Paul Dowling (Chicago, 2016-17) regarding contributions to the revised Policy, we now see two entries for LGBTQI+ communities within it and hope we had a small part in this development. That we continue to have low non-binary figures is not in itself evidence for radical change, but possibly an argument for doing something artistically credible to support these groups within our communities, as long-term advocates of The Creative Case and a commitment to working with diaspora.

Sexuality: audience and artists To contextualise our monitoring, as you read on, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) believe that c.1.7% of England’s population self-identify as LGBTI+ today, though other sources –such as The Kinsey Report- believe this may be as high as 10%. We will update this with census findings in 2021.

Sexuality monitoring was added to feedback forms in 2018 with free form answer space. Just 58% of respondents provided an answer. Standardising responses returned a figure of 70% as heterosexual, with 10% opting for a non-binary identifier, such as “gay”, “pan” or “bisexual”. 12% spoiled their answer with 1.72% using ‘prefer not to say (PNTS)’.

In 2019, the largest variance was in PNTS/spoiled answers, rising from 19.23% to 46.52%. Non-binary audiences dropped, but with so few returns it is difficult to ascertain the pattern, though our female programme focus –rather than specific LGBTQI+- may have some part.

However, understanding our audience and artists in this way enables us to evidence who we are missing and the concerns of our audience. It is clear some people do not understand why we collect this data and they make a joke of it. A cohort of people do not understand ‘sexuality’ as distinct from ‘gender’ (c.5%), suggesting greater context may enable more precise answers. Our research in this area shows that we are better able to collect data if we supply the categories. We will use this to inform surveys in future.

Adrian Duncan presented his award-winning book A Sabbatical in Leipzig (The Lilliput Press), followed by a Twitter Q&A.

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Payment of artists

Artist payments 2016 2017 2018 2019 2019 No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % Yes, by LIF 10.0 7.6 22.0 17.5 92.0 46.7 57.0 39.9 10.0 9.3 Yes, but by a partner 13.0 9.1 9.0 8.4 Yes, via a box office split/profit arrangement 6.0 4.2 8.0 7.5 No; support in kind 30.0 21.0 80.0 74.8 No, not at all 122.0 92.4 104.0 82.5 105.0 53.3 37.0 25.9 0.0 0.0 Totals 132 100 126 100 197 100 143 100 107 100

Paying artists happens in multiple ways. From 2019 we have tracked this differently to take account of this. As a commissioner, we can pay artists directly, arrange for payment via partnership (by someone else) or agree tickets sale earnings, or splits thereof. As we work closely with artists, creatives and partners in various roles, sometimes people receive in-kind payments for their time, via our promotional activities and platform in exchange for their time. This is favoured when working in close partnership, such as with Irish Community Care providing a speaker for the dual-heritage day because it fully aligns with mutual work on Black History Month. In this instance, there were no payments, but each partner received in-kind benefits. 21

Occasionally no payment is due because the Festival and individual trade favours. We try to keep this to a minimum, but people can and do volunteer their performance (or time) in support of the Festival. If this benefits the community, or individual, we may proceed assuming all parties are agreeable. What is evident is that YOY we are working hard to pay artists and creatives for their work.

Of 107+ people we worked with directly (Board members, artists, performers, writers, partners, contributors, advisors, volunteers) 95 had creative functions. Of those 112 • 10* were paid by the Festival • 80 acted in-kind • 8 accepted/traded on box office arrangements in full or part shares • 9 people’s fees were arranged under a partner. * The tenth person paid by us was our PR and Comms consult. This role registers as a marketing function within the context of Arts Council England funding and core funds in relation to Emigrant Support Programme funds. Audience postcode analysis

Postcode analysis indicates market penetration, audience hotspots and travel time. Annual postcode data has shown us where our audiences travel from and where work has affected audience, demonstrating where we should improve marketing. It can show trends in visitor reach, though -as often as not- it can create anomalies if standardised testing cannot be completed; i.e., running an event in L18 and collecting feedback there strongly improves your chance of getting feedback from L18. Not doing the same in L38 means you will not get data from here and L38 people attending the Family Day may be missed due to the scale of the event.

In 2016 we secured feedback from someone in every residential area Liverpool and almost every single post code (of 40). In 2018, this reduced to 32:40 up from 30:40 in 2017, but even this demonstrates we draw audiences from 75-80% of Liverpool. Sadly, a refresh of the survey in 2019 missed ‘post code’, though we did ask what city people resided in. Of the 359 surveys completed, 266 were completed on the 2019 format, and the remaining cohort replies are not enough to substantiate extrapolation. This means we can only extrapolate figures for 2019, done using the averages of the previous three years and known local attendance figure for the #LIF2019 . With just 36 post codes collected in 2020, it is not feasible to make an analysis on this year. Neither Eventbrite nor Facebook share post code data, and do in 2020 we cannot progress out work in this area. The data presented below is that from 2019.

Mike Byrne ceramics: ‘Always Neutral’ selected for the In the Window exhibit, co-run with Bluecoat Display Centre and Design and Crafts Council of Ireland for #LIF2020.

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Postcode analysis 2016 2017 2018 2019

A=Attendee response no. 2 0 1 339 223 249 C=Visits extrapolated against attendee response 5461 6017 1403 1860

Location Authority A % C A % C A % C A % C

L1 City Centre Liverpool 13 3.8 209 13 5.83 351 6 2.41 338 4.02 749

L2 City Centre Liverpool 1 0.3 16 0 0.00 0 3 1.20 169 0.50 93 L3 City Centre, Everton, Liverpool 14 4.1 226 10 4.48 270 13 5.22 733 4.61 858 L4 Anfield, Kirkdale, Walton Liverpool 8 2.4 129 2 0.90 54 4 1.61 225 1.62 302 L5 Anfield, Everton, Kirkdale, Liverpool Vauxhall 5 1.5 81 3 1.35 81 0 0.00 0 0.94 175 L6 Anfield, City Centre, Everton, Fairfield, Liverpool Kensington, Tuebrook 8 2.4 129 5 2.24 135 4 1.61 225 2.07 385 L7 City Centre, Edge Hill, Liverpool Fairfield, Kensington 18 5.3 290 4 1.79 108 7 2.81 394 3.30 615 L8 City Centre, Dingle, Liverpool Toxteth 32 9.4 515 21 9.42 567 20 8.03 1127 8.96 1667 L9 Aintree, Fazakerley, Orrell

Liverpool, Sefton Park, Walton 3 0.9 48 4 1.79 108 7 2.81 394 1.83 340 L10 Sefton, Liverpool, Aintree Village, Fazakerley Knowsley 2 0.6 32 1 0.45 27 0 0.00 0 0.35 64 L11 Clubmoor, Croxteth, Liverpool Gillmoss, Norris Green 7 2.1 113 2 0.90 54 1 0.40 56 1.12 209 L12 Croxteth Park, West Liverpool Derby 10 2.9 161 9 4.04 243 12 4.82 676 3.94 732 L13 Clubmoor, Old Swan, Liverpool Stoneycroft, Tuebrook 20 5.9 322 9 4.04 243 10 4.02 564 4.65 865 L14 Broadgreen, Dovecot, Liverpool, Knowsley Knotty Ash, Page Moss 4 1.2 64 4 1.79 108 4 1.61 225 1.53 284

L15 Wavertree Liverpool 19 5.6 306 16 7.17 432 16 6.43 902 6.40 1191 L16 Broadgreen, Bowring Liverpool, Knowsley Park, Childwall 8 2.4 129 3 1.35 81 12 4.82 676 2.84 529 L17 Aigburth, St Michael's 13. 21.0 126 14.4 16.2 Liverpool Hamlet, Sefton Park 45 3 725 47 8 8 36 6 2029 7 3026 L18 11.6 Allerton, Mossley Hill Liverpool 30 8.8 483 15 6.73 405 29 5 1634 9.07 1688 L19 Garston, Grassendale, Liverpool Aigburth, 9 2.7 145 10 4.48 270 5 2.01 282 3.05 567 L20 Bootle, Orrell Park and Liverpool, Sefton Kirkdale 3 0.9 48 2 0.90 54 3 1.20 169 1.00 185 L21 Ford, Litherland, Seaforth Sefton, Liverpool 5 1.5 81 1 0.45 27 1 0.40 56 0.77 144

L22 Waterloo Sefton 4 1.2 64 6 2.69 162 7 2.81 394 2.23 414 L23 Blundellsands, Brighton- le-Sands, Crosby, Little Sefton Crosby, Thornton 11 3.2 177 4 1.79 108 9 3.61 507 2.88 537

L24 Hale, Speke Halton, Liverpool 2 0.6 32 0 0.00 0 0 0.00 0 0.20 37 L25 Belle Vale, Gateacre, Hunts Cross, Woolton, Liverpool, Knowsley Halewood 9 2.7 145 11 4.93 297 7 2.81 394 3.47 645

L26 Halewood Liverpool, Knowsley 2 0.6 32 4 1.79 108 2 0.80 113 1.06 198

L27 Netherley Liverpool 3 0.9 48 1 0.45 27 0 0.00 0 0.44 83

L28 Stockbridge Village Liverpool, Knowsley 1 0.3 16 0 0.00 0 1 0.40 56 0.23 43 L29 Lunt, Sefton Village Sefton 0 0.0 0 0 0.00 0 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 L30 Bootle, Netherton Sefton 5 1.5 81 3 1.35 81 10 4.02 564 2.28 424 L31 Maghull, Lydiate, Melling, Sefton Waddicar 4 1.2 64 1 0.45 27 4 1.61 225 1.08 201

L32 Kirkby Knowsley 0 0.0 0 0 0.00 0 2 0.80 113 0.27 50

L33 Kirkby Knowsley 4 1.2 64 0 0.00 0 1 0.40 56 0.53 98 L34 Prescot, Knowsley Village Knowsley 3 0.9 48 0 0.00 0 0 0.00 0 0.29 55

L35 Prescot, Whiston, Rainhill Knowsley, St Helens 3 0.9 48 5 2.24 135 4 1.61 225 1.58 294 L36 Huyton, Roby, Tarbock Knowsley 4 1.2 64 0 0.00 0 2 0.80 113 0.66 123 L37 Formby, Little Altcar, Sefton, West

Great Altcar 5 1.5 81 0 0.00 0 3 1.20 169 0.89 166 L38 Sefton, West Ince Blundell, Hightown Lancashire 2 0.6 32 0 0.00 0 0 0.00 0 0.20 37 L39 Ormskirk, Aughton West Lancashire 11 3.2 177 5 2.24 135 4 1.61 225 2.36 440 L40 Burscough, Mawdesley, West Lancashire, Scarisbrick, Rufford,

Chorley Holmeswood 2 0.6 32 2 0.90 54 0 0.00 0 0.50 92

Totals 0 339 100 223 100 249 100 100 5461 6017 14032 18601

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We used this data in 2020 to locate the top sites for posting 19.7k Festival newspapers to, approaching the warmest areas to try and provide a gift to the postal area that give us the most visits.

Until we can do a deep dive in to post code data, we don’t see a value in providing further statistical breakdowns of the table above.

The following table shows the national and international visitor locations and YOY changes, 2016-19.

National and international visitor residency information + YOY changes All responses 2016 % 2017 % 2018 % 2019 % Bath or Bristol 4 0.73 0 0.00 2 0.47 1 0.31 and NI 5 0.91 2 0.58 8 1.88 9 2.77 Birmingham and Leicester 1 0.18 0 0.00 1 0.23 12 3.69 Blackburn, Bolton and Chorley 1 0.18 3 0.87 2 0.47 3 0.92 Blackpool 2 0.37 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 Bradford, Halifax, Leeds, Sheffield and York 2 0.37 5 1.45 9 2.11 4 1.23 Chester and Wirral (inc. Wallasey, Ellesmere, etc) 99 18.10 56 16.18 86 20.19 31 9.54 Coventry and Derby 1 0.18 2 0.58 2 0.47 0 0.00 Crewe 3 0.55 1 0.29 1 0.23 0 0.00 Dublin and ROI 2 0.37 5 1.45 0 0.00 8 2.46 Durham, Darlington and Hartlepool 0 0.00 2 0.58 1 0.23 1 0.31 Edinburgh, Glasgow and Scotland 3 0.55 1 0.29 0 0.00 5 1.54 Gloucester, Badsey and Oxford 1 0.18 0 0.00 0 0.00 2 0.62 Guildford and/or Woking 1 0.18 2 0.58 0 0.00 0 0.00 Inverness 2 0.37 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 Ipswich 0 0.00 1 0.29 0 0.00 0 0.00 Jersey 0 0.00 1 0.29 0 0.00 0 0.00 Lancaster, Kendall, Ulveston and Barrow-in- Furness 1 0.18 0 0.00 2 0.47 4 1.23 Liverpool 339 61.97 223 64.45 249 58.45 189 58.15 Llandudno, Powys, Llandridod, Prestatyn and Cardiff 10 1.83 3 0.87 4 0.94 4 1.23 London (all), and Bucks 14 2.56 10 2.89 14 3.29 12 3.69 Manchester 5 0.91 5 1.45 9 2.11 13 4.00 Northampton and Kettering 1 0.18 2 0.58 5 1.17 1 0.31 Norwich 1 0.18 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 Nottingham 2 0.37 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 Oldham, Burnley and Rochdale 1 0.18 1 0.29 1 0.23 2 0.62 Other international/Queensland Australia 1 0.18 11 3.18 7 1.64 1 0.31 Paisley 1 0.18 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 Plymouth and Lindford 1 0.18 0 0.00 0 0.00 2 0.62 Portsmouth and 1 0.18 0 0.00 0 0.00 2 0.62 Preston and Skelmersdale 9 1.65 3 0.87 10 2.35 1 0.31 Shrewsbury and Shropshire 1 0.18 0 0.00 0 0.00 1 0.31 Southend-on-Sea, Clacton and Essex 1 0.18 0 0.00 0 0.00 2 0.62 Stockport 2 0.37 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 Stoke-on-Trent 1 0.18 0 0.00 1 0.23 0 0.00 Torquay and Melbourne 2 0.37 0 0.00 0 0.00 1 0.31 Warrington, St Helens, Widnes, Ormskirk 17 3.11 6 1.73 11 2.58 11 3.38 Wigan 9 1.65 1 0.29 1 0.23 3 0.92 Totals 547 100 346 100 426 100 325 100 Illegible/no answer left 34 9.47 Completions 359

Lead image for Trad Disco, which attracted over 4,000 views in 2020. 24

Travel and out of town stays: indicators

In 2017, 65% of visitors stated that their main reason for travel was the Festival event they attended, down from 83% in 2016. We have not measured this attribute since then due to prioritised survey questions, but as a notional value provides interesting outputs. 2020 indicators Using 2016 and 2017’s median of 74% (83-65=18 /2=9. 83-9=74%) we could argue that of 23,323 total visits, 17,259 were made specifically for our events. This is compelling when considering our impact on tourism, though is also clearly a fallacy given our online status for our October events.

Calculating out of town visits 4859 (national) + 648 (international; see table above), and using the standard city visit multiplier of 0.4%, generates 2,202.8 (down from 3,151 in 2019) overnight stays. Using the Liverpool Hotels Update 2016 rate of £70.03 per night, the Festival may have encouraged a hotel income of £154,262 (down from £220,679 and £89,190 in 2019 and 2018) respectively.

When we achieve NPO status, such information will need closer monitoring to account for our carbon- footprint, which forms a staple part of the contract with Arts Council when working at this level. PR: Facts Figures and Trends

All the figures presented in this section report figures from the day following the festival in 2019 to the closing day of #LIF2020.

Print We determined personalised print was the way to go the brochure would have limited by more than 1/3. because venues were -mainly- closed, therefore The newspaper has a positive shelf life-containing people could not pick-up print or see posters. Direct written commissions and activities as well as an mail seemed to be a way of ensuring we provided event schedule. Instead of 7k 28-page brochures some direct provision and community care. and 14k 32-page newspapers we printed and share Difficulties with data gathering means we are unable 20k 32-page newspapers. Having sold £3k of to make direct correlations between postal drops information space in 2019 (covering its print price), and event visits. we hope to rejuvenate sales in 2021, having only managed (under C-19 conditions) to sell one print This is a more expensive approach to our usual ‘print and one online panel this year. and share via venue collections’ approach. In 2021 we will need to consider venue openings and public The next limitation was on the number we could confidence in accepting/retrieving print. afford to post. These two figures were brought in to balance with the budget, allowing for the production Largely, funds dictated the print we developed this of 20,000 newspapers, 19.7k deliveries (with year. We amalgamated our usual brochure and spares) and archive copies. newspaper to a newspaper only, as this provided the best per unit cost/output. As noted in the post code analysis above, this year’s distribution of 19.7k Festival newspapers used four We felt that providing a large document, during years of data to identify our most active local post Covid-19, was a way of extending the Festival codes, to which we sent our print using the Royal theme, telling stories and providing activities, which Mail’s ‘Door-to-Door’ service.

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Distribution

The map above shows the areas selected for full and partial code distribution, whilst the list (left) shows the names of each. Despite following all the lead times -delivering print to the Warrington distribution warehouse as directed on 28 Sept- the papers took over three weeks to be delivered; longer than hoped.

Ideally, to support design flow, print and delivery work, lead programme must be complete as early in the calendar year as possible. Online sales will go live in mid-summer and all other ticketed shows before the August bank holiday to give people a number of pay packets to stagger their ticket buying across.

In addition to print, we increased social media posts (see Social Media Growth Summary), including event links, animated posters (no printed ones went out this year) and short animated trailers.

In 2021 we will reconsider print, based on the prevailing social distancing codes, venue availability and public confidence in paper- based information. There are definite advantages to brochures, newspapers, leaflets and poster in reaching non-digital audiences and we want to be sure we are doing what we can to meet accessibility issues as well as finding new audiences. Understanding this, in the climate of the time, will be important and therefore our recommendation in 2020 looking ahead is to consider multiple options early to address costs and best opportunities.

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Social media growth summary

NB This table accounts for followers and subscribers.

Web traffic was down by over 20% in 2020. We believe this is because we were in direct contact with the majority of our audience resulting in less searching for information as there were more direct links (e.g., on Facebook and in enewsletters). As Laura Brown (PR and Comms consultant) explains:

"The campaign was almost entirely focussed online. This removes a sense of people looking to the website for information…and removed the number of people searching for the Festival after they see a poster or piece of print. As much of the Festival ran through Facebook, much of the traffic went through there”.

The lack of quick prompts (causing people to need to search, e.g., posters) is a reason for less web visits. Facebook

NR = Not recorded or reported.

Facebook is our best channel best for filtering events, stories and news to audiences, rather than contacting professionals or press. LIF’s Facebook reach in 2020 totalled 185,822. This consists of 182,531 organic and 3,962 in paid reach. In Oct 2020 we gained a staggering reach of 70,277, a huge increase on previous years (43,182, Oct 2019) and our highest yet. Key sources for links to this page include Facebook links, Google and LIF’s website. Event specific posts had a reach of 82,957 and engagement of 6,352.

In:Visible Women dual heritage day 2019, which led to the creation of Liverpool Family Ties: The Irish Connection by The Sound Agents, delivered in 2020. 27

Rich content performs best and videos are often well liked and interacted with. Top performing videos in 2020 were Trad Disco and the ‘minutes of videos viewed’ in the table are for the top performing 20 videos only, showing another massive increase in generating online engagement.

LIF’s Facebook audience is stable at 56% female vs 42% male (same as 2019) and largely from Liverpool. Cohorts decreasing in number in Dublin, London, Belfast, Manchester, Cork, Birkenhead, Derry, Wallasey and Newry which rank as the top 10 cities in our fan list.

Twitter

NB Not recorded or reported. We have found Twitter good for engaging with press and artists (a professional network), but less positive for audience interactions (compared with Facebook). Twitter content must be fast-paced, easy to digest and eye-catching. It needs using pragmatically for headlines, with links to the website. Opinion formers often add to this feed, if not attendees. Our impression rate is the highest growing of our monitors. Event specific posts had a reach of 102,771 and engagement of 2382. This is a new metric. Instagram The Festival is remains inexperienced with Instagram and has not quite found its channel voice. That said, we’ve significantly grown our audience from 397 in 2018 to 763 today (52% growth). In future we will use this channel to host artist takeovers, tell picture stories, etc. The ability for people to ‘like images quickly, leads to roughly 18 likes per post, but what the overall value of this is remains to be understood.

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Website

NR = Not recorded or reported.

For consistency, we base our web activity on the day following the preceding year’s festival to the end date of the festival in the year we are reporting on, the Monday after the Festival last year to the last day of the Festival this, capturing a full annual cycle.

LIF’s website was reconstructed in Sept 2016, yielding extremely high engagement and a small drop off the year following. As time has progressed, web analytics have improved and many more things have become measurable.

What our analytics show is that additional use of social media has reduced the need for some website use. It also flags that we need to do some work on reducing our bounce rate to within the 40-455% perimeter. Mailchimp LIF’s Mailchimp data appears clean, with a relatively warm audience. Our 2020 average regular open rate is 22%, with 19% engaging sometimes and 57% rarely. This is a new way of Mailchimp reporting, so it is difficult to compare the YOY figures. ‘Arts and Artist’ industry open and click rates appear to have risen and fallen to 26.27% and 2.9% respectively, from 23.34% and 2.95% in 2019, against which we were scoring 27.19% and 4.15% respectively. Industry statistics, as supplied by Mailchimp (https://mailchimp.com/resources/email-marketing-benchmarks/ accessed 25 Nov 2019).

Average Open Industry Average Click Rate Hard Bounce Soft Bounce Unsubscribe Rate Rate Arts and Artists 26.27% 2.95% 0.30% 0.51% 0.28% In the review period we have issued 14 enewsletters compared to 11, 13, 16 and 10 in 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016 respectively. Open rates (total) were 27.19%; so: if 22% seems like a decrease, 22+19=41% would be a significant gain, but we cannot determine which it is not all the metrics have altered.

Fewer people sign up for newsletter today compared with 2016 and in 2020 vast quantities of email make it a much harder market place to penetrate. This is especially true now things like mass testing also run through email accounts and every independent store, high street shop and friendship group have emails, social media channels and WhatsApp groups.

We normally see a spike in subscriptions following large data inputting sessions (i.e., after River Festival and our annual festival), then a sharp drop-off of ‘unsubscribers’, all of which will be affected by limited data collection this year.

Our two most opened post in 2020 was our St Brigid’s Day film announcement in January (first of the year) and our CARA mailing in April, both of which received 39% opens, suggesting a dedicated community audience, seeking insider tips. Event announcements are popular and certain story lines seem to have traction (e.g., programme announcements). We need to leverage this to our advantage.

This channel may provide the best platform to sell affinity space (i.e., advertising) as we can show their individual success. We need to make this channel work harder with regards ticketing pre-sales and must refresh the template to ensure it is as responsive as possible.

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Press achieved

£106,070 5,031,918 Publication Source Title Excerpt Type AVE (£) OTS Url Date Patrick Kielty to headline Liverpool Irish Festival is The Guide back this time with a virtual https://theguideliverpoo this year''s programme, as always the l.com/patrick-kielty-to- Liverpool Internet 14/09/2020 £108 4,021 headline-this-years- virtual festival will celebrate the virtual-liverpool-irish- (Web) connections between festival/ Liverpool Irish Liverpool and Festival Bongo''s Bingo & Clean students across the Bandit are UK."Patrick Kielty is to https://theguideliverpoo The Guide l.com/bongos-bingo- teaming to headline this year's virtual clean-bandit-are- Liverpool Liverpool Irish Internet 15/09/2020 £108 4,021 teaming-to-bring- bring students students-a-special-

(Web) Festivalhttps://t.co/QGwE virtual-freshers-event/ a special WP8ifDpic.twitter.com virtual freshers event Liverpool Irish Liverpool Irish Festival is being staged online for https://www.artscitylive Arts City Festival rpool.com/single- 2020 with Patrick Kielty post/2020/09/21/Liverp Liverpool announces 10 among those taking part in Internet 21/09/2020 £5 - ool-Irish-Festival- announces-10-day-

(Web) day online the October event.Tickets online-programme programme are now avai conversation will explore Liverpool Irish the connections between Liverpool Festival Liverpool and Ireland https://www.liverpoolec Liverpool Irish Festival ho.co.uk/whats-on/arts- Echo reveals online Internet 22/09/2020 £23,421 872,556 culture-news/liverpool- becomes the latest event irish-festival-reveals- (Web) programme to move online for 2020 online-18975312 for 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic LAURA DAVIS Arts editor Irish Festival [email protected] Key Liverpool moves online Icdavis Central Library. Liverpool Irish Festival runs Regional 23/09/2020 £3,191 38,474 Echo for the 2020 from October 15-25. The s event full programme can be found at www Black Lives ‘Afrocentric Superheroes'. Matters The event is free but pre- Liverpool booking is essential. https://liverpoolexpress. protests co.uk/black-lives- Express Liverpool Irish Festival will Internet 24/09/2020 £36 1,322 matters-protests- inspire special host a mixer on 15 October inspire-special-liverpool- (Web) festival/ Liverpool which encourages people festival of dual and

A special Afrocentric Superheroes'. festival is The event is free but pre- The Guide happening in booking is https://theguideliverpoo essential.Liverpool Irish l.com/a-special-festival- Liverpool Liverpool to Internet 24/09/2020 £108 4,021 is-happening-in- Festival will host a mixer liverpool-to-celebrate- (Web) celebrate on 15 October which black-history-month/ Black History encourages people of dual Month and

Port of Liverpool Building turns green for #GlobalGreening. 30

FESTIVALLiverpool Irish LIVERPOOL FestivalVarious venues + Bido Lito! IRISH online – 15/10-25/10 https://bidolito.co.uk/pr News 24/09/2020 £72 - eview-liverpool-irish- (Web) FESTIVAL October sees the return of festival-2020/ the annual LIVERPOOL 2020 IRISH FESTIVAL, celebratin Liverpool Black Lives Matter Afrocentric Superheroes'. The event is free but pre- protests booking is essential. https://www.inyourarea InYourAre .co.uk/news/black-lives- inspires Liverpool Irish Festival will Internet 25/09/2020 £3,485 129,842 matter-protests- a (Web) inspires/ programme of host a mixer on October 15 which encourages people events for of dual and Black History Month Monteverdi, and panel 25 fabulous discussions on poetry and politics.19. Embrace your https://www.boundless free things to .co.uk/be- Boundless Irish sideLiverpool Irish inspired/lifestyle/25- do in the Festival, 15-25 Internet 26/09/2020 £35 1,318 fabulous-free-things-to- (Web) do-in-the-month-of-

month of OctoberLiverpool has october October always had a close affinity with Ireland Story of Mrs born writer and musician has announced that her Wirral George latest play is coming to the https://www.wirralglob e.co.uk/news/18741933 Globe Bernard Shaw Liverpool Irish Festival next Internet 26/09/2020 £395 14,757 .mrs-shaw-appear- (Web) is coming to month.Helen Tierney is liverpool-irish-festival/ thrilled to bring Mrs Shaw Merseyside Herself to Merseyside born writer and musician has announced that her Addition Mrs Shaw Wirral latest play is coming to the al Herself comes Liverpool Irish Festival next 30/09/2020 £440 88,204 Globe Regional to festival month. Helen Tierney is thrilled to bring Mrs Shaw s Herself to Merseyside Black History Month 2020: Over 40 for the event, which will be streamed at 8pm on Liverpool events https://www.liverpoolec Facebook.October ho.co.uk/news/liverpool Echo planned for 15Liverpool Irish Festival Internet 01/10/2020 £23,421 872,556 -news/black-history- will be hosting online event month-2020-over- (Web) Black History 19010507 Mixed Heritage Mixer at Month in 6pm online Liverpool this October Limerick Limerick artist Bluecoat Display Centre Key https://www.limericklea Leader and Liverpool Irish Festival der.ie/news/home/5798 featuring in Regional 10/10/2020 15,000 48/work-of-limerick- featuring work by Limerick artist-to-feature-at- Festival artist Mike Byrne s liverpool-exhibition.html Interview with BBC Radio Lorraine Interview series on Drive Merseysid Maher to to promote Liverpool Irish Radio 12/10/2020 300,000 e discuss Mixed Festival irish Mixer

Cultural https://www.thestage.c Festival included in round o.uk/news/full-list-of- The Stage Recovery Press 12/10/2020 15,000 theatres-receiving- up of funding culture-recovery-fund- Funding grants Arts and cultural £96,357 Liverpool & Confidenti Merseyside Theatres Trust https://7.confidentials.c organisations Ltd £389,352 Liverpool om/liverpool/arts-and- als cultural-organisations- in Liverpool Irish Festival £50,500 Internet 12/10/2020 £1,105 41,161 in-liverpool-city-region- Manchest Liverpool Lighthouse receive-6-8-million- City Region boost?id=5f848e0bf062 er (Web) £81,272 Lumen b receive #6.8 Productions Limited million boost Liverpool arts organisations Theatre, Parr Street Studios, dot-art, Sound https://www.artscitylive Arts City share rpool.com/single- City, Wired Aerial Theatre post/2020/10/12/Liverp Liverpool #5.1million and Liverpool Irish Festival Internet 12/10/2020 25,000 ool-arts-organisations- are among 30 city share-£53million- (Web) Culture Culture-Recovery-Fund- recipients who together cash Recovery are due to share more than Fund cash Arts and Confidenti £96,357 Liverpool & https://confidentials.co cultural Merseyside Theatres Trust m/liverpool/arts-and- als cultural-organisations- organisations Ltd £389,352 Liverpool Internet 12/10/2020 £1,105 25,000 in-liverpool-city-region- Liverpool Irish Festival £50,500 receive-6-8-million-

in Liverpool boost (Web) Liverpool Lighthouse City Region

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receive #6.8 £81,272 Lumen million boost Productions Limited

Highlights and a preview of Liverpool Festival https://liverpoolnoise.co what to expect at this Internet 13/10/2020 20,000 m/liverpool-irish- Noise preview year's festival festival-2020/ BBC Radio Interview with Interview series on Drive Merseysid Unemployable to promote Liverpool Irish Radio 13/10/2020 300,000 e Promotions Festival 'Afrocentric Superheroes! The event is free but pre- Events show Key Liverpool booking is essential. power of the Liverpool Irish Festival will Regional 13/10/2020 £4,527 38,474 Echo arts in change host a mixer on October 15 s which encourages people of dual and Events, can now be viewed from Confidenti festivals and the comfort and safety of https://confidentials.co als your own home. Liverpool m/liverpool/events- Xmas markets Internet 14/10/2020 £1,105 25,000 festivals-and-xmas- Liverpool Irish Festival This year's 10 markets-whats-still-on- ? what''s still day Liverpool Irish in-liverpool (Web) on in Liverpool Festival launches 15 Events, can now be viewed from Confidenti https://7.confidentials.c festivals and the comfort and safety of om/liverpool/events- als your own home. Liverpool festivals-and-xmas- Xmas markets Internet 14/10/2020 £1,105 41,161 markets-whats-still-on- Manchest Irish Festival This year's 10 in- ? what''s still day Liverpool Irish liverpool?id=5f86f0964 er (Web) a9f6 on in Liverpool Festival launches 15 Interview with BBC Radio Celtic Interview series on Drive Merseysid to promote Liverpool Irish Radio 14/10/2020 300,000 Animation e Festival Film Festival All the individual artists,

Merseyside freelancers and schools https://www.liverpoolec Liverpool that we work with".And in ho.co.uk/whats- arts venues on/whats-on- Echo events, Liverpool Irish Internet 15/10/2020 £23,421 872,556 news/iconic-venues- that got Festival, which has just funding-regions-cultural-

(Web) 19112642 emergency kicked off its program for funding this year Interview with BBC Radio Festival Preview interview on Merseysid Director at Breakfast to discuss Radio 15/10/2020 300,000 e start of events coming up Festival £5m funding for Festival featured in the https://www.irishpost.c organisations Key om/news/more-than- round up of UK based 5m-in-funding- Irish Post working with organisations benefiting Regional 17/10/2020 25,000 announced-for- from government emigrant organisations-serving- irish s irish-community-in- funding britain-198045 Community in Britain individual artists, freelancers and schools Key Liverpool £6.9m boost that we work with". And in events, Liverpool Irish Regional 17/10/2020 £18,877 38,474 Echo for culture Festival, which has just s kicked off its programme for this year Poetry Book http://jmu- Liverpool celebrates Focus on Greg Quiery new journalism.org.uk/poetr book for Meet the Makers 18/10/2020 4,000 y-book-celebrates- Life Liverpool-Irish liverpool-irish-history/ History

BBC Radio Interview with Interview series on Drive Merseysid Reamonn to promote Liverpool Irish Radio 19/10/2020 300,000 e O'Ciarain Festival BBC Radio Interview with Interview series on Drive Merseysid to promote Liverpool Irish Radio 20/10/2020 300,000 Mike Chinoy e Festival

Interview with Carmen Key https://www.independe Wicklow Poetry for the nt.ie/regionals/wicklow Cullen making references Regional 28/11/2020 15,000 people/entertainment/p People Pandemic to Meet the Makers event oetry-for-the-pandemic- s 39787543.html

Unexpurgated from PR and Social Media report, © Laura Marie Brown, 2020.

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Notes on press achieved Laura Brown has used Kantar –a data and marketing insights agency- to generate the above information. They calculate the press reach based on known circulation and digital platforms, using figures for each media organisation and the title as defined by the Audit Bureau of Circulations or ‘ABC’ press circulation data (the industry standard for print and digital platforms). It also uses, RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) for broadcast and BARB (Broadcast Audiences’ Research Board) for TV.

Testimonials

Descriptors Since 2016 we have asked what three words best describe the Festival. We process these as ‘descriptors’. From 72 #LIF2020 forms 216 descriptors arose (359 #LIF2019 forms with 724 descriptors).

2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Total descriptors Total descriptors Total descriptors Total descriptors Total descriptors used 1690 used 934 used 1023 used 724 used 216

All Times % of All Times % of All Times % of All Times % of All Times % of descriptors used total descriptors used total descriptors used total descriptors used total descriptors used total 1 Fun 265 15.68 Fun 70 7.49 Fun 89 8.70 Fun 71 9.81 Interesting 13 6.02 2 Interesting 159 9.41 Interesting 39 4.18 Interesting 40 3.91 Entertaining 23 3.18 Informative 11 5.09 3 Informative 135 7.99 Informative 28 3.00 Good 33 3.23 *joy* 23 3.18 *joy* 7 3.24 4 Entertaining 120 7.10 Entertaining 27 2.89 Informative 28 2.74 Great 22 3.04 Fun 6 2.78 5 Good 111 6.57 Excellent 25 2.68 Cult... 27 2.64 Irish 21 2.90 Friendly 5 2.31 6 Lively 102 6.04 Lively 17 1.82 Enjoy 26 2.54 Good 22 3.04 Inclusive 4 1.85 7 Educat… 100 5.92 Inspir… 16 1.71 Entertaining 26 2.54 Cultural 20 2.76 Cultural 3 1.39 8 Excellent 92 5.44 Great 16 1.71 Great 26 2.54 Inclusive 18 2.49 Inspir… 3 1.39 9 Friendly 86 5.09 Music 15 1.61 Very… 23 2.25 Interesting 17 2.35 Variety 3 1.39 10 Music 71 4.20 Friendly 14 1.50 Inclusive 22 2.15 Music 17 2.35 Excellent 3 1.39 11 Inspir… 69 4.08 Good 13 1.39 Diverse 18 1.76 Friendly 16 2.21 Educat… 3 1.39 12 Cultural 61 3.61 Cultur… 13 1.39 Friendly 17 1.66 Inspir… 16 2.21 Vari… 3 1.39 13 Brilliant 60 3.55 Very good 12 1.28 Irish 17 1.66 Informative 14 1.93 Great 2 0.93 14 Fab 45 2.66 Inclusive 11 1.18 Lively 14 1.37 Divers… 11 1.52 Entertaining 2 0.93 15 Inclusive 33 1.95 Educat… 10 1.07 Inspir... 14 1.37 Variety 10 1.38 Fascinating 3 1.39 Thought Thought 16 provoking 15 0.89 provoking 9 0.96 Fab… 14 1.37 Brilliant 9 1.24 Music 2 0.93 17 Lovely 12 0.71 Diverse 9 0.96 Music 13 1.27 Engaging 9 1.24 Divers… 2 0.93 18 Very good 8 0.47 Lovely 7 0.75 Amazing 12 1.17 Excellent 8 1.10 Brilliant 2 0.93 19 Engag… 7 0.11 Brill… 12 0.11 Educat… 6 0.15 Engaging 2 0.47 Vari…(variety, Thought Thought 20 Amazing 7 0.07 varied) 16 0.16 provoking 5 0.07 provoking 2 0.09 21 Stimul… 7 0.75 Excellent 11 1.08 Irish 1 0.05 Totals 1544 91.36 Totals 372 38.52 Totals 498 46.21 Totals 358 48.14 Totals 82 36.26 2016's top 3 2016's top 3 2017's top 3 2018's top 3 2019's top 3

NB – where words seem incomplete, they have been used as a search term to amalgamate all instances of similar variants, i.e., “inspir” will cover all instances of ‘inspirational’, ‘inspired’ or ‘inspiring’ and “brill” will cover ‘brill’, ‘brilliant’, ‘brilliance’.

You can see slight fluctuation in the top descriptors, but it is fair to say they are positive and address engaging atmospheres and rich content. No negative descriptors appear as none ranked. 2020 and 2019’s audiences used a more varied description base previous years, sometimes avoiding the three-word request, making data analysis more difficult. The gravity of Covid-19 is reflected in the slight shift in terminology, which increases information and interest, but maintains fun, joy and friendliness, which is a very positive given the circumstances.

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Additional feedback As in previous years, we have asked people ‘Do you have anything you would like to tell us?’, and ‘Do you have suggestions to make or work you’d like to see?’. The following two sections (Feedback and Work Suggestions) are unexpurgated (bar “N/A”, “No” and “-“) answers. We have included every comment for full transparency and honesty.

Feedback • I am of German and NI heritage • Always look forward to attending LIF • Really great film - thank you v much events...always promote diversity and inclusion. • Interesting film Something for everyone to enjoy. Massive • Really enjoyed the film and exploring our credit to Emma for getting so much talent amazing diverse Irish communities involved. Always innovative to suit needs of • Very interesting and heartwarming. Quite audience. emotional • I'm just so glad it exists! You always have a • Family Ties was excellent nice mixture of events and it's a great way to celebrate the intricate connections between • Always thought that the racial mix in Liverpool is one of our greatest jewels. Ireland and Liverpool. Keep up the great work! • No, only that I enjoyed the event very much and • Excelent film. Lovely to hear the stories wish you every success. • I don't think my heritage is important at all. I • suspct it is mainly of interest to "ex-pats". I couldn't join the zoom call for some reason. • I have found it quite difficult to access some of • All my family Irish. Married to Irish/Norwegian the online events when they are live. • This was WONDERFUL. Thank you • Fantastic, diverse offerings showcasing some • Granddaughter of an Irish Grandmother and great Irish talent. Chinese Grathfather • booking on Eventbrite for Stray Dog Following. • Interesting film and discussion a disaster for myself and three people I know • Nothing on my side of the family (100% Irish) and probably others but my partner's maternal side is Dutch+Irish • It's a wonderful project, seems really well so if I can get some info I'd love to pass it on. organised with a good variety of events to • It was very good access. Obviously being all online is not always • I enjoyed the film which I ound inspring and ideal, but equally it allows anyone to access the gave me strength events from anywhere, so I happily shared your • On mother's side Irishfrom Durham coalminers link far and wide 😊😊😊😊 after potato famine - she met my father at • interesting Chester as Wren - before WW2 Irish • 1st time attending intermarried she said. • It’s wonderful! • I am the great granddaughter of Mr Fong and Elizabeth Fong • Excellent adaptation to difficult circumstances. • • Do you have anything you would like to tell us very good about the Festival? • I registered for 2 events and got tickets. The • I think you've done a great job altering the poetry and the whistle walk. I could not access delivery of the festival given the challenges either, I'm disappointed. presented due to the pandemic • Enjoyed the play very much. • I thought it was excellent, thought-provoking, • Thoroughly enjoyed watching 'Stowaway' upsetting, but also there was positivity about • Was great to be able to connect from Australia, what needs to be done. loved my visit in 2015 • It's great • I joined several online events and really enjoyed • First time attendees. Hidden histories was a them. Well done to everyone involved in the very powerful and moving sessionI have really organisation - it can't have been easy - and in enjoyed reading the Festival newspaper And particular to Emma Smith who did a really great look forward to discovering more interesting job on the Q and As and compering. events • Given the restrictions you did a great job.

Keeping children and young people 34 involved must be a focus for future years. Work suggestions • Linking North and Eire with "Mini Ireland" • I wasn't aware of this festival before, tuned in (**difficult to read**) to see a friend's presentation, there are so • Might be intersting to explain more dual- many connections between Ireland and heritage Liverpool, wouldn't be hard to find work that • I am interested in all aspects of Irish culture connected us more. Will think about that. • I'd like this to be available to borrow and others • More opportunities for local musicians and to see it artists. Fringe events if circumstances permit. • Thanks for film as always food for thought • More of the same. I really enjoyed the play. And • Bigger/longer am looking forward to some of music pieces • More Irish music events throughout the year • More of the same • I'm interested i Irish music/Caite Jondu • good variety under circumstances Flamenco similarities - said to be from • Hopefully next year we are all hoping to be Armadasailors wrecked on coadt of West living in a world post-Covid, so live events will Ireland be back (!) but I still feel there is a place also • More filmming/workshops/events for on-line access, for people unable to attend • Would like to get involved live events. • Online events are brilliant for people who live • diversity outside the Liverpool area • No you’re doing great! • Face to face panel instead of remote • Darkling Air • Really interested in any music and history • Covid will still be apart of our lives - rather than events cancel the festival how about you bring the • Really interested in any music and history artists over and run Zoom live events. This will events bring in more income to your festival as well as open the festival up to a much larger audience • Just any events that bring people together, alas I know we cannot do this this year (world wide) • Work from Irish women • Really enjoyed Patrick Kielty more discussions and high profile people discussing troubles in • I actually find the mix of events broadens my NI. perception and interests. So, although I would normally say 'more music', I actually love it as it • "The story telling of Eddie Lenihan would be amazing as would a gig featuring Skippers is - eclectic and thought provoking. Alley or John Francis Flynn. • more diverse event - river dance ! • Some more events about Irish mythology e.g. • Make it easier to join events show link in blue, The Túatha Dé Danann etc and/or Folklore like other links. I was going around in circles. would be greatly appreciated, maybe contact • Liverpool Irish bands collaborating with those in people like Jon O'Sullivan alias Scéalaí Beag, Ireland, Scotland and around the world (author of 'Tales of a Dagda Bard' volumes 1 • Continue with the same enthusiasm. and 2) or Lora O'Brien (Loraobrien.ie) and • I think it would have worked better as a radio maybe some features around the Irish play Travelling Community ( Oein De Bhairduin, • Would be great to see 'Lessons of War' live. author of 'Why the moon travels') etc. But, basically, just keep up with the great mix of p.s. Go raibh míle math agat for including the events. likes of Lankum, Lisa O'Neill and Varo in recent • put on a big gig at the PHIL- LUnasa would be years!!!" my dream- to up the profile, there used to be more at the PHil

Caillte, featured in #LIF2019 , but the Festival retains consistent contact with creators Glas Creative to provide critical support, testimony and funding advice.

Direct feedback The Director received some written feedback; “Can I ask if you worked with an editor/writer to presented, unexpurgated, below: generate the majority of content? I love the editorial “I was delighted to see you managed to pull off a feel rather than just being a listings guide. It strikes just wonderful Festival during this lockdown”. the right balance”. Claire Henderson; Learning Team, Liverpool Joanne Karcheva; Communications Director, Biennial. Manchester Collective. Brilliant events […], have to say LIF just keeps getting “Great to work with you – I could detect your drive, better every year…love the mix of passion, creative approach – so we should be able to speakers/events. Massive to have Patrick Kielty bring another event or project together with a bit of involved too….well done you. imagination and co-operation”. Réamonn Ó Ciaráin; Gael Linn. Brilliant event on Saturday so important to keep these discussions going to ensure peace in NI can “Many thanks for your email and information on our box office income for MRS SHAW HERSELF. We remain. Credit to all involved. Clodagh Dunne; Slainte Le Cheile. thoroughly enjoyed being part of the Festival, albeit remotely. Your organisation and support from the team “This morning I received your excellent LIF newspaper were great and made the show go smoothly and stress through the post. Do you mind me asking who free on the night. produced this for you? “Thank you for your support of our work”. “I’m an arts marketer based in Liverpool and would love Alexis Leighton; Performer/Director, Helix to know who to approach if we have a need for Productions. something similar in the future. “I hope we can do some more collaborations in the “it’s a brilliant effort and I can’t wait to have a proper future and thank you all for the inclusion in this year’s read. Great way indeed to connect with audiences right festival. now, especially in a particular area. I live in L17 if that “Please pass on my congratulations and thanks to the helps… festival committee and board also”. Terry Clarke-Coyne.

Responding to feedback We believe the majority response is positive, with the exception of some users struggling to gain entry to events that we know ran. Primarily people want more of the same, with some specific suggestions, such as more trad, bigger Philharmonic events, etc. It is interesting there weren’t more comments about marketing; a normal ‘go to’ for people asked to provide feedback. Covid-19 has meant people being more proactive about finding work they want, unable to rely on print as they have been used to. We have a smattering of calls for more music (specifically trad), though nothing suggests becoming a music festival, demonstrating our specific ‘arts and culture led’, multidisciplinary programme continues to be well understood and valued, with people appreciating how the festival made them feel and acknowledging the diversity. Suggestions will be incorporated in to our planning; with consideration about print made in line with updated marketing priorities, and funds with specific event feedback will be given to the producers where the work is ongoing.

Rejuvenating the Liverpool Irish Famine Trail to honour the fallen and the generations that remain -as well provide an international site of interest- will be a core focus of the Festival for the next five years.

Focus for the future These points span the development of an artistic core of events and exhibits through which we will enact the Business Plan and futureproof LIF’s future. Arts and culture are the delivery mechanisms by which we deliver our mission and the means by which we will secure our future. By accomplishing these five objectives, cyclically, we will secure Liverpool Irish Festival for the future. 1. Grow core The existing Festival ‘team’, skill-set and delivery capability has hit maximum capacity in terms of hours deliverable, existing core skills and programme scale. Substantial work is needed to underpin our out-of- festival work, which promotes the Festival, supports artists, sustains resilience and networks, fundraises and builds evidence development. For one person to undertake this year-on-year presents professional, legal and moral quandaries, allowing single-point-of-failure issues and presenting risks and stresses the Festival cannot afford if/when they fail (http://www.continuitycentral.com/feature1011.html). We must build funding (strategically, short and long term), income streams, expertise and capacity to develop, sustain and futureproof ourselves, moving towards

• stable investment for inclusionary work, artistic development and cultural dialogue • long-term security for team, contractors and audiences • increased income – types and amounts • improved artist support, development and representation • improved capacity for long-term bids and evaluation frameworks • greater national recognition for artistic and cultural outputs, leveraging investment, likely from mid/high level public realm work (e.g., Liverpool Famine Trail) • two permanent roles (minimum), graduating from contract to PAYE status across the plan. See our Business Plan for more. 2. Develop public realm work The ability to cross-sell work from a public space is notable; improving figures, long-term engagement tools and embedding ideas that leave lasting impressions and build reputation. Such work should be investable and interest multiple stakeholders. Our first task is to rejuvenate the Liverpool Irish Famine Trail, using National Lottery Heritage Fund support and crowdfunding ideas. The Business Plan provides a case study. We must consider generating other (scalable) public realm opportunities, including event-based opportunities (e.g., the first Irish dual-heritage or cultural connectedness annual conference) or visual art led (e.g., taking on an Irish pavilion as part of the Liverpool or Venice Biennial). 3. Generate strong theme and programme Connecting events to a theme helps the press tackle a large programme, generating positive cross-sales and deep(er) media penetration. The theme exchange was a good theme, inviting and encouraging flux. It caught people’s attention, tapped in to a zeitgeist for story and provided a framework for artists and audiences to identify with. The idea of the Festival receiving stories as well as telling them is well liked alongside exporting the Liverpool Irish story as well telling the stories of Irish diaspora communities. We must use our USP as a programmer. Large-scale commercial events continue to be a risk with our current audience. Small, intimate, resonant events work best and gain deep engagement. 4. Agree and pitch programme from summer Teamed with Points 1 and 5 is finalising key programme in June/July. This is essential for addressing income, all promotion and sales, and allows time for web-content, risk management and reaction handling. 5. Distribute programme early and get partner buy-in Points 4 and 5 dovetail, but show two different functions of programme readiness and promotion. By far the best attended/followed events are those where the partner supports the promotion, which doubles outputs, marking it critical to the success of events (particularly paid events). This should be formalised in to arrangements for shared events. Consequently, it is essential to get print and messaging signed off in late summer and for the Festival to push to partners to display, promote and sell. 37

Thanks

We extend our gratitude and thanks to all our partners and their teams; regular venues, hosts and their staff; our contributors and Board members; artists and collaborators. We thank our networks and supporters, sponsors and friends. In addition, we remember and value those who came before today’s team and the many that we have met during and since this year’s festival – thank you.

Additional praise goes to this year’s funders and donors, who -working in the most difficult of climates- saw value in our work supported us and the communities we serve. Go raibh maith agaibh/Thank you.

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